Why Is It Called Cadillac “Elmiraj”?

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There’s no question that the Cadillac Elmiraj concept is a looker. And while it might not be a harbinger of what Cadillac has in store for its upcoming full-size flagship coupe or sedan, it definitely serves as a teaser of what’s to come. But why is it called Elmiraj?

The name pays homage to the El Miraj lakebed in San Bernardino County, California, which has been used by the Southern California Timing Association for top-speed runs for the last 50 years. The same group also organizes speed runs at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Something tells us that when a production version of the Elmiraj comes to market, likely wearing the LTS name, its solid architecture (known internally as Omega) and powerful engine range will empower it to reach high speeds on the likes of the lakebed, all while exuding confidence and comfort for the driver and the vehicle’s passengers.

“Despite its docile appearance, Al-Mir’aj is actually a ferociously territorial predator known to be able to kill animals and people many times their own size with a few stabs of its horn. It also has an immense appetite and can devour other living things several times its size without effort. Al-Mir’aj frightens other animals and they will always flee from its presence due to this.”

If you want to look for Arabic sources, rather take al mi’raj (المعراج), a noun derived from the radical ‘rj (عرج) meaning ‘to rise’. al mi’raj (المعراج) means ascension (to heaven), specifically the ascension of the prophet Muhammad to heaven (from where, so the legend goes, he returned to earth). The name of this mythical animal has the same spelling, the Wikipedia article you linked to says. Please note that the apostroph in above latin transcriptions from Arabic represent the letter ain, a “voiced pharyngeal fricative” with its wonderful sound (to my ears). This letter does not appear in the Cadillac car name.
Look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain_%28letter%29 for some explanation of Ain or Ayin.

On the other hand, “mirage” in French and “miraje” in Spanish refer to mirroring, especially the mirage in the sense of a fata morgana. The original Spanish colonizers of California, from whom the USA have taken the country by force, leaving most place names intact, might have seen a Fata Morgana (mirage) on that lakebed which Alex Luft mentions.

Further, the predecessor of the Elmiraj concept car was called “Ciel”, which is the French word for heaven. So why not let heaven be followed by the ascension to it?

And the name sounds so wonderfully exotic, ideal for a luxury product.

Whatever, Silvio. All prophets are false to those who don’t believe their words. Nobody is able to verify independently the veracity of what the prophets claim to be their god’s words.

My uncle, who was preacher, surprised his wife one morning with the announcement that god had spoken to him in the night, telling him that they had to move to Brasil to spread god’s word there, to which my aunt replied “My dear husband, I was on your side all night, but I did not hear that voice!”.

I read the Cadillac explanation of the name when the car came out. They said it was for the Desert and they just ran the letters together into one word.

This Al-Mirage is nothing compared to the most ferocious Spam Animal in WVA.
They are real as I saw the head of one mounted in the trunk of a 53 Buick. LOL!

I looked at it and knew it was a real animal but knew something was not right. The guy too the hind end of a Deer and put fangs is the butt, the nose became the tail and they added some ears to the top. I wish I had taken a photo as it was funny. It drew a bigger crowd than the Buick did.